Editing Cynoscion regalis (section)

==Conservation==
''Cynoscion regalis'' has its main breeding grounds in the near shore estuaries of the Chesapeake Bay. "The most important habitat for the weakfish is the brackish waters of the Chesapeake bay" (Gillum). This is where the vast majority of weakfish breed, to maintain a healthy population of weakfish these areas must be preserved. The weakfish experienced a crash that was recognized in 2009 as stated by John McMurray in the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership, "A 2009 stock assessment found that weakfish were badly depleted. The stock had reached an all-time low of 2.9 million pounds, far below the "biomass threshold" of 22.4 million pounds, which is what scientists would consider a healthy stock.  This is an astonishing drop, since the East Coast harvest in 1980 was 80 million pounds" (McMurray).<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.trcp.org/2013/10/07/whats-up-with-all-these-weakfish/|title = What's up with All These Weakfish?|date = 7 October 2013}}</ref>

Natural mortality of this species has increased since the mid 1990s from 0.16 to an average of 0.93 from 2007 to 2014 but the underlying cause is still unknown. Given the decline in SSB in excess of 60% over three generation lengths and the unknown driver of increasing natural mortality, this species is listed as Endangered A2b with an urgent need for additional research to determine the driver of increasing natural mortality.<ref name = iucn/>